Election News and Features
Kennedy Joins Obama Camp
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Sen. Edward Kennedy joins his niece Caroline Kennedy and his son Rep. Patrick Kennedy in endorsing Barack Obama for the presidency.
30-Second Summary
The Nation reports that prior to announcing the endorsement, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) had become increasingly frustrated with the Clintons' "campaign tactics." These included comments with seemingly racial connotations.
In Charleston, S.C., Bill Clinton said that his wife Hillary could lose to Obama because of race. “They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender,” he said. “And that’s why people tell me Hillary doesn’t have a chance of winning here.”
Then on Jan. 26, the former president compared Obama to Jesse Jackson, who ran for president in 1984 and 1988 and won South Carolina each time, yet lost the nomination.
Obama won the South Carolina primary that same day with approximately 55 percent of the vote.
The Los Angeles Times attributes Obama’s win largely to his ability to attract the black vote: four out of five black voters cast their ballot for Obama compared with one in four white voters.
In Charleston, S.C., Bill Clinton said that his wife Hillary could lose to Obama because of race. “They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender,” he said. “And that’s why people tell me Hillary doesn’t have a chance of winning here.”
Then on Jan. 26, the former president compared Obama to Jesse Jackson, who ran for president in 1984 and 1988 and won South Carolina each time, yet lost the nomination.
Obama won the South Carolina primary that same day with approximately 55 percent of the vote.
The Los Angeles Times attributes Obama’s win largely to his ability to attract the black vote: four out of five black voters cast their ballot for Obama compared with one in four white voters.
Headline Links: The Kennedys back Obama
Sen. Edward Kennedy endorsement
“I feel change is in the air,” Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) declared as he led his niece Caroline Kennedy and his Congressman son Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) in endorsing Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential ticket. In front of a cheering crowd at American University in Washington, D.C., the elder Kennedy called Obama a man of “grit and grace.”
Source: The Washington Post
According to The Nation, Kennedy had become increasingly "ill at ease" with the Clintons’ “campaign tactics” during the days leading up to his endorsement. These tactics allegedly included suggestions that Obama was drawing voters because of his race rather than his policies.
Source: The Nation
Caroline Kennedy
In a Jan. 27 New York Times op-ed, Caroline Kennedy officially endorsed Barack Obama. Kennedy compared the Illinois senator to her father, former President John F. Kennedy: "I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president—not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."
Source: The New York Times
Background: Obama wins South Carolina; Bill Clinton's comments
Obama won the South Carolina primary with approximately 55 percent of the vote. The Los Angeles Times attributes Obama’s win largely to his ability to win the black vote. Four out of five black voters cast their lot in favor of Obama, compared to one in four white voters.
Source: The Los Angeles Times
During the week leading up to the Jan. 26 primary in South Carolina, former President Bill Clinton made several remarks that some in the media have interpreted as racially charged. In Charleston, S.C., Clinton said that Hillary could lose to Obama because of race. “They are getting votes, to be sure, because of their race or gender,” he said. “And that’s why people tell me Hillary doesn’t have a chance of winning here.” The former president then compared Obama to Jesse Jackson, who ran for president in 1984 and 1988 and won South Carolina each time, yet lost the nomination.
Source: The New York Times
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd calls the Clintons “a two-headed monster” who “go where they need to go.” She writes that “bad Bill had been roughing up Obama” so much that former Clinton aide and current Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) told him to back off. Dowd says that Hillary Clinton largely handed off the South Carolina leg of the campaign to Bill, remarking that “it’s odd that the first woman with a shot at becoming president is so openly dependent on her husband to drag her over the finish line.”
Source: The New York Times
Opinion: Bill Clinton as bane and boon to Hillary’s campaign
Michael Tomasky, of British newspaper The Guardian, writes that Bill Clinton is a liability to Hillary Clinton's campaign. According to Tomasky, the former president's comparison of Obama to Jesse Jackson “struck a lot of people as one more inappropriate and dismissive attempt to pigeonhole Obama as 'just the black guy.'"
Source: The Guardian
Peggy Noonan writes in The Wall Street Journal that Bill Clinton is responsible for bringing the issue of race into the election. Noonan also writes that the Clintons are actually hurting the Democratic Party: “Bill Clinton, with his trembly, red-faced rage, makes John McCain look young. His divisive and destructive daily comportment—this is a former president of the United States—is a civic embarrassment ... the Clintons are tearing the party apart. It will not be the same after this. It will not be the same after its most famous leader, and probable ultimate victor, treated a proud and accomplished black man who is a U.S. senator as if he were nothing, a mere impediment to their plans.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal (registration may be required)
Matt Lauer, host of NBC’s “The Today Show,” speaks with former Bill Clinton advisor Paul Begala, journalist Joe Klein and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin about whether the former president's effect on his wife's campaign. Klein said that Bill Clinton is hurting his wife in the elections. Paul Begala called Clinton the best player she’s got. Goodwin said he helped Hillary up to Iowa but has hurt her campaign since he’s gone on the attack.
Source: The Today Show
Liz Cox Barrett of the Columbia Journalism Review compares the viewpoints of two female pundits, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan and Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel. Barrett points out that the there are similarities between each of their comments on Bill Clinton's campaign role. During the Jan. 20 airing of "Meet the Press" Peggy Noonan said that Hillary Clinton is "running for head of the United States, chief executive officer. And she has to send her husband out to yell at the neighbors?” Vanden Heuvel asked on the “Today” show whether “as a woman … are voters going to be moved in this election by how they believe, what they think about a spouse?”
Source: Columbia Journalism Review
The Jan. 20 edition of the NBC news program “Meet the Press” features more commentary on Bill Clinton’s role in his wife's campaign. The panel of guests includes Peggy Noonan, columnist for The Wall Street Journal, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jon Meacham, editor of Newsweek and National Public Radio’s Michele Norris.
Source: Meet the Press
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